Did Russia Just Censor All 26,439 Squarespace Sites Over a Satirical Gay Art PDF File?

Have you heard of Rospotrebnadzor? We haven’t, until 30 minutes ago, when Anatoli Ulyanov of art site Looo.ch told ANIMAL that Rospotrebnadzor — Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare — has blocked their site and added it into the Registry of Forbidden Sites.

This means that every ISP in Russia is blocking Looo.ch from their customers. We have no complains or explanations from the federal institution, responsible for this act of censorship.

Along with Looo.ch, 26,439 sites are banned in Russia — everyone using the Squarespace platform, which powers Looo.ch. We’re waiting on a response from Squarespace.

Looo.ch is a (currently) New York-based art, technology, criticism, and travel website run by Ukrainian expats Natasha Masharova and Anatoli Ulyanov since 2010. Along with original documentaries, theory pieces and art images, Looo.ch has published a few provocative e-books, including two directly responding to Russia’s new “anti-gay propaganda” laws.

One look through them and you know they’re not gay textbook for children. If you don’t, you are silly or a tyrannical Kremlin minion.

While stylized as a picture book and riddled with emoticons, it features gay and lesbian imagery — some is explicit, some is not. Some is reminiscent of the books your embarrassed parents handed you when you noticed you’re about to hit puberty and can’t bring themselves to talk to you about it.

Sometimes, when you look at another boy, you suddenly feel happy and strange.

Ultimately, between the Tumblr-style collage of hot girls, softcore gifs and art references, some basic points are delivered in fuchsia Times New Roman, there’s cultural criticism. A page featuring a beaming, bloody, breastfeeding new mother and her discarded placenta reads…

They say that to make a child, you need to a mom and a dad. Isn’t it cool that we live in the 21s century when science creates miracles! Thanks to science, you can get impregnated by the Holy Ghost even! Like the Virgin Mary!
＼（＾∀＾）メ（＾∀＾）ノ

This is why they’ve been censored, Ulyanov is convinced. “The censors read anything with ‘homosexuality’ and ‘child’ in one sentence as ‘child pornography… According to the law, they’re supposed to inform us that we have 3 days to take off anything that Russia considers as god fucking shit [sic: obscene], but they didn’t. They just closed us.”

This isn’t the first time Looo.ch got in trouble for “controversial” content. They a good share of hate mail and death threats and have been kicked off Russian servers. Their “right to death” suicide-themed ebook was recently banned and they’ve migrated the books to downloadable PDF files.

“Files are bigger and better than sites,” Ulyanov who’s a free tools and pirate technology enthusiast, tells ANIMAL. “We’re not programmers and since we are static media that can be banned by the hosting company, we can survive with the file. By keeping the files, you’re fucking Russia, which is good thing to do.” So how do you get a PDF file out of Russia? Ulyanov says that blocking the entire Squarespace would do the trick, until they create an alternate path to the site. Or use proxies. Or TOR. Or download it elsewhere. Nice try though.

Looo.ch’s mission statement is pretty direct. Their content can get pretty intense.

We don’t care for “social decorum”, “matters of national security”, “copyright”, “ideology”, and other grounds for repression of culture evolution.

But even if you aren’t a decided cultural trouble-maker and habitual line-stepper (Ulyanov has quite the bio/rap sheet), don’t get too comfortable in Russia.

In the same round of bans, Rospotrebnadzor issued a warning to Facebook for advertising “Spice,” a synthetic weed substitute that is illegal in Russia. Allegedly, if they don’t comply and remove the ads, Facebook could be blocked from Russian-based ISPs too.

(⊙.⊙(☉_☉)⊙.⊙)

UPDATE: Squarespace responded to our inquiry. “We are currently investigating on why this is occurring. Once we have more information on this, we will relay the message to you. Also thank you for supplying us with that additional info.” Uh-oh.

UPDATE 09/23 7:15 AM: I’ve been emailing all weekend. Most recent email from Squarespace: “We don’t have any updates on this as of yet… Thanks for your continued patience in this matter.”

C. and maintained homes in Lexington and the Washington suburb of McLean VaAt a dinner Monday night with freshman House Democrats Vice President Joe Bidencalled Skelton “a classy guy” and said Skelton had “absolute total thorough integrity”And Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi noted Skelton’s dedication to the military saying in a statement “he made sure that every man and woman in uniform who put their lives on the line would receive the support they had earned and the deepest respect they deserved”Skelton won the first of 17 congressional terms in 1976 and was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee at the time of his loss to HartzlerAn astute military historian Skelton helped build up Missouri’s two military installations As Whiteman Air Force Base near Knob Noster was losing its cache of long-range nuclear missiles Skelton secured its future in the late 1980s by getting the Defense Department to place the new B-2 bomber thereAfter redistricting made Skelton the representative for Missouri’s Fort Leonard Wood in 1983 the number of troops undergoing training there more than quadrupled and the post’s mission expanded from the Army to all branches of military serviceBorn Dec 20 1931 Skelton met President Harry Truman as a teenager and had a lifelong interest in politics He was elected Lafayette County prosecutor in 1956 and later practiced law with his father but returned to elective office in 1970 when he won a six-year term in the Missouri SenateAn endorsement from Truman’s widow Bess helped him win his first race for the US HouseUntil his loss to Hartzler Skelton’s closest call in a re-election bid had been a 10 percentage point victory in 1982 when redistricting changed his territory He was a low-key campaigner but so dominant a political figure that late in his career his campaign signs sometimes consisted only of the word “IKE” against a green backgroundAmong his civic activities Skelton was a presidential appointee to the American Battle Monuments Commission which is in charge of US military resting places overseas and the World War I Centennial Commission which is planning next year’s activities marking the 100th anniversary of the start of that warSkelton had been elected chairman of the Centennial Commission and was especially looking forward to its work said Orban who spent 16 years as a congressional aide to Skelton before moving into other government work in 1992″If he was known for anything it was for being a student of history He prized military education and the use of history” said Orban who was retiring from government when he accepted Skelton’s invitation to practice law with him in Husch Blackwell’s Washington officeSkelton was honored at West Point in 2012 with the Sylvanus Thayer Award presented to “an outstanding citizen whose service and accomplishments in the national interests exemplify the Military Academy motto ‘Duty Honor Country'”In a Veterans Day 2010 speech at Lincoln University in Jefferson City Skelton recounted how he dedicated his career to improving conditions for military troops veterans and their families and to expanding the missions of Fort Leonard Wood Whiteman Air Force Base and the Missouri National GuardHe also expressed concern about the ability of the next Congress led by Republicans in the House and Democrats in the Senate and White House to find consensus But he said his greatest concern was the potential for waning attention to the military”I am fearful that a chasm will develop between those who protect our freedoms and those who are being protected” Skelton saidSkelton had three sons with his first wife Susan Anding who died in August 2005 In 2009 he married Patricia Martin of Lexington who survives along with his sons US Navy Capt Ike Skelton V James Anding Skelton and Harry Page SkeltonFuneral arrangements are pendingAssociated Press writer David A Lieb contributed from Jefferson City Mo January already set a bloody record, about 5 miles from the scene of Turner’s shooting, I take a different position. we certainly don’t accept these elections,City voters were more vehement about who they DON’T want to see on the 2013 ballot: By a margin of 46% to 35%,Most registered Democrats Marist polled — 37% — are undecided about the field. but they’re also more likely to contain a chemical called acrylamide, (And potatoes have a particularly high amount of it, Gallup executives started to have concerns: In one email exchange detailed in the complaint.
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